Simulation of benzene transport and biodegradation during transient hydraulic conditions

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2000MODFLOW and BIOMOC were used to simulate transport and biodegradation of benzene in the alluvial aquifer adjacent to the Chena River. MODFLOW was used to calculate ground water fluxes at the boundaries of the BIOMOC model, which was used to model transport and biodegradation of benzene. A benzene plume located 300 ft. southeast of the study site is superimposed onto the cross-sectional model of the study area. Only saturated zone processes were modeled. Anaerobic biodegradation was the only simulated biodegradation process. The simulation shows 0.003% of the theoretical benzene entering the saturated zone is biodegraded, 0.6% is adsorbed by solids, and 99.4% leaves the model boundaries. The simulation predicts theoretical concentrations of benzene are 2 to 8 ug/l when discharging into the river. Field data do not support this finding. Processes not simulated, such as aerobic degradation at the water table, may make significant contributions toward limiting benzene transport

Some sacramental and pastoral approaches to forgiveness

This thesis gathers a variety of perspectives on forgiveness. It steps outside the Christian tradition to seek the contribution of the social sciences as well as considering biblical data and theological debate. It suggests forgiveness has wide meanings, and may entail many things, though there are no set answers or sure methods of guaranteeing the 'success' of attempts to engage in forgiveness. Its dual foci are approaches - past and present - to the 'sacrament' of penance and to pastoral care and counselling. Problems which attend to each are considered; two texts Kierkegaard's Purity of Heart and Bonhoeffer's Spiritual Care - are given special attention; the psychoanalytical technique of transference is assessed. Horizons are progressively widened and connections made between approaches. It argues that there are currents in contemporary culture and society which might desensitise persons to the potential relevance of forgiveness and that the task of those engaged in the caring traditions of the church ought to be to enable persons to respond with creativity and, where appropriate, resistance, in their attempts to give and receive forgiveness. Because it is concerned to resist the over-systematisation of diverse approaches, it argues that rather than adherence to strict criteria, a capacity to renew relationships is shared by the perspectives it considers, which in turn confirms a need to be more generous about what we affirm as genuine forgiveness and less judgmental about what we chose to call its counterfeits

Liturgical theology: children and the city

Liturgical Theology: Children and the City engages academic liturgical theology, contextual sensitivity and key challenges faced by the church in contemporary Britain. From its initial focus on the emphasis on congregational participation in the twentieth-century Liturgical Movement, and on the Church of England prayer-book Patterns for Worship (1989, 1993) as an example of a late twentieth-century liturgical resource that stresses participation, the thesis deepens perspectives on a number of related issues. As Patterns for Worship was intended especially to encourage participation in specific contexts - worship in 'urban priority areas', and in congregations seeking to include children - the thesis explores the themes of children and the city in order to suggest a range of challenges which need to be engaged by a contemporary contextually-sensitive liturgical theology. Then, as the discipline is largely neglected in Britain, it explores some North American expressions of liturgical theology and identifies a number of themes and features by which the arguments of Patterns for Worship might be strengthened, or questioned and recast on better foundations. Appreciation of the work of Gordon W Lathrop, Don E Saliers and James F White provides the basis for the thesis' contention that engagement with articulate theological perspectives on liturgy is necessary in order for Patterns for Worship to fulfil its potential. Conversely, however, the thesis also identifies issues with which the discipline of liturgical theology has by no means fully engaged, and so invites a more inclusive vision in liturgical theology. Towards the end of the thesis, the work attempts to initiate the kind of approach to liturgy that it claims is needed in order to fulfil the potential of Patterns for Worship. Using resources gleaned from North American liturgical theology it develops theological and practical ideas about how congregations in urban priority areas and seeking to include children can relate their celebration of liturgy to a sense of divine hospitality

THE AUTOMATIC CONTROL OF LARGE SHIPS IN CONFINED WATERS

The design and evaluation of a control system, which can be utilised for the automatic guidance of large ships in confined or restricted waters, is investigated. The vessel is assumed to be a multivariable system and it is demonstrated that a non-linear, time-varying mathematical model most accurately describes the motion of the hull, particularly in tight manoeuvres. A discrete optimal controller has been designed to control simultaneously track, heading and forward velocity. The system is most effective whilst operating under a dual-mode policy. It is shown that feedback matrix adaption is necessary to deal with changes in forward velocity and a form of gain scheduling is proposed. Active disturbance control is employed to counteract effects of wind and tide. An inertial navigation system, together with an optimal controller and filter, is installed on-board a car ferry model. Free-sailing tests show that the performance characteristics of the system are in accordance with theoretical predictions. The feasibility of implementation on a full-size vessel is considered.University College, Londo

The Fukushima Daiichi Accident: The International Community Responds

The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant site in northeastern Japan has led to a worldwide focus on the safety of nuclear power and a renewed debate over its role in the generation of electricity. In the decade before the accident, interest in nuclear energy returned in the face of growing demand for electricity coupled with increased attention to reducing carbon emissions. These factors fostered what many call a “nuclear renaissance.” But, as the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi site unfolded in March 2011, the question seemed to become whether nuclear energy had any future at all. Although not as severe in terms of radioactive releases as the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi was significant and the only multi-unit accident in the history of nuclear power generation

Exploring logic foundations of quantum mechanics : laboratory experiments in an electromagnetically isolated environment [abstract]

In 1995 research began on fabricating an electromagnetically isolated laboratory environment. In 2005 a scientific device called the Spheric Alignment Mechanism was patented. [1] The nested superconducting hemispheric device was designed to block electromagnetic fields from reaching its hollow interior. A 2008 survey was conducted with the assistance Donald P. Ames and Scientific Technical Network (STN). Initially the STN Data Base was searched for electromagnetic field measurement in superconductive sphere volumes by sensors which did not generate an electromagnetic field; no references were found in the STN abstracts of 10,000 journals covering Chemistry, Engineering, Physics and US and foreign Patents. This search was repeated several times using different Data Base entries; again no references were located. Summary: STN Data Base does not list any papers in referred journals that report EM field measurements by non-EM generating sensors in volumes of spheres protected by superconductive Type 1, Type 2 or High Temperature materials. [2] In 2008 the ESD and EPS embodiments of the Spheric Alignment Mechanism were patented. [3] By creating an closed superconducting and/or metamaterial shielded environment [4] it is anticipated that the electromagnetic fields will relax to their ground state thus transforming matter from spontaneous symmetry breaking to its less entangled, higher degrees of freedom for a information protomatter-like Higgs mechanism state. A group of laboratory experiments will be conducted to probe the exact quantum mechanical nature of said controlled phase space. [5] We anticipate the degrees of freedom for information, evidenced across transformational phase states, will move out from the Higgs Mechanism entangling to matter, into visible matter, and into antimatter [6] across an arrow of entropy where the amount of information constructing the Higgs mechanism not available to do work sets the boundary conditions for each state. When matter is shielded in the device, the Higgs mechanism will reestablish itself as low-energy, macroscopic, highly ordered, quantum mechanical superposition

Reflectance spectra of Fe(2+)-Mg(2+) disordered pyroxenes: Implications to remote-sensed spectra of planetary surfaces

The reflectance spectra of Fe(2+)-Mg(2+) disordered orthopyroxenes are relevant to surfaces of terrestrial planets onto which basaltic magma has been extruded. If cooling rates of basalt lava flows were fast, equilibrium iron intersite partitioning may not have been achieved so that abnormal enrichments of Fe(2+) ions in M1 sites would occur. The two intense pyroxene Fe(2+) site CF bands in the 1 micron and 2 micron regions would continue to dominate the the reflectance spectra so that the pyroxene composition and structure type would be readily identified in telescopic spectral profiles. However, abnormal intensification of the Fe(2+)/M1 site CF band at 1.20 microns could lead to the false identification of olivine in remote sensed spectra because in pyroxene-olivine mixtures the inflection around 1.20 microns is the only spectral feature for detecting the presence of olivine. The identification of iron-bearing plagioclase feldspars, too, would be obscured by the pyroxene Fe(2+)/M1 site CF band at 1.20 microns. Such interference would be a major problem if in situ reflectance spectra could be measured on the surface of Venus where ambient temperatures are as high as 475 C. Disordering of Fe(2+) and Mg(2+) ions comparable to that in the orthopyroxenes used in this spectral chemical study might be expected in low Ca pyroxenes occurring on the Venusian surface. Researchers conclude that Fe(2+)/M1 site spectral features need to be carefully assessed in remote-sensed spectra before deductions are made about the presence of olivine on planetary surfaces

Higher Education, Management Control and the Everyday Academic

This contribution to the Festskrift for Hanne Norreklit examines how the use of management controls by senior management of universities impacts on the everyday academic. This examination is rooted in two interrelated issues, being, first, what should the purpose of a university be and second, what should they look to contribute to society. To keep the analysis that follows manageable, England provides a representative setting due to these issues having been heavily debated there within recent decades. While these debates continue, market-orientated understandings have come to dominate, influencing the focus of successive governments and, in turn, the situated practices of universities. Specifically, this has changed the focus of senior managers, at universities, away from their traditional remit towards revenue generating activities. Key to their efforts is the understanding that external impressions of their university, as provided by, for example, rankings, will affect financial performance. This results in senior management increasingly managing for the rankings and other such external signifiers. In so doing, they have progressively introduced management control regimes that focus the organisation’s activities onto the external signifiers. However, as senior managements’ performance, and thereby rewards, has become increasingly linked to the external signifiers, their focus has narrowed only to the output metrics of the management controls they have put into place. Hence, they become wilfully ignorant of the wider impact these management controls have, and the pressure cooker situation this creates for many everyday academics. While this outcome has been well documented in the extant literature, this article adds, through the analysis of exemplars, how this is resulting in the grimmest of situations, with dire consequences. As part of noting that this could, and should, be different, speculation is raised over whether other management controls may act as release valves to this pressure cooker situation